Computer graphics is a field about processing ``visual data'', including images, videos, 2D and 3D shapes, light and reflection, motion, physical properties, and many more. Throughout the course, we will learn about:
- Modeling: How to describe and edit 2D and 3D shapes.
- Rendering: How to turn 2D and 3D shapes into images algorithmically, and how to make it fast using domain-specific hardware.
- Animation: How to create motion.
You can take a look at previous CSE 167 web pages (either
my version,
Albert Chern's version or
Ravi Ramamoorthi's version) to have a better sense of what the course is about. This course is also offered on MOOC and UCSD Online by Ravi Ramamoorthi. You are free to look at Ravi's lectures, but my lecturing style would be slightly different. While I will cover most contents covered by Albert and Ravi, the order and details might be different.
This course is only the tip of an iceburg of a fascinating field. If you are interested in computer graphics, you should look the more advanced materials in CSE 168 for rendering (either
my version or
Ravi's version),
CSE 169 for animation,
CSE 191 B: for virtual reality and
CSE 165 for user interaction.
Prerequisites
(Modern) C++. Matrices and vectors.
Logistics
Lectures: Monday/Wednesday/Friday 15:00-15:50 Pacific time. Location: CENTR 119.
Dicussion: Friday 18:00-18:50 Pacific time. Location: CENTR 115.
Instructor office hour: Wednesday 4pm-5pm. Location: CSE 4116.
TAs/Tutors office hour: Trevor Fri 2-3pm @ CSE-B270A, Mustafa Mon 1-2pm @ CSE-4127, Annapurna Thu 2-3pm @ CSE-B275, Ritoban Tue 10-11am @ CSE-B270
We will do most of the online discussions on
Piazza.
Posting rules in Piazza: When asking debugging questions about the homework, please:
- Read other posts first. See if your question has been answered before.
- Describe clearly what are the specific problems you are facing.
- Describe clearly what are the solutions you have tried, and why you think they did not work.
- Describe clearly what kind of help would be the most helpful for you.
Posts fail to adhere to the rules will be ignored. For example, simply posting a screenshot asking what is wrong in the screenshot does not adhere to the rules above.
Course recording: We will record the class if the equipment is available. However, the class will be very interactive and you might be missing a lot of context if you are not in the classroom yourself. Please try to join us in person and let's have fun together!
Grading, Homeworks and Projects
There will be 4 programming homeworks (each 17.5%) and a final project (30%).
The homeworks involve quite a bit of programming and can be tough for inexperienced. Start early and ask questions!
Late penalty: score * clamp(1 - (seconds passed after midnight of the deadline day) / 86400, 0, 1)
(this means that after 1 day your score becomes 0! start early!)
We will use the time on Canvas to determine how many seconds have passed.
Homeworks 1-4 will be based on the
balboa codebase.
Collaboration policy: You are expected to do the homeworks and the project alone (feel free to discuss between peers!).
LLM policy: We do not recommend heavily using large language models for the programming assignments and projects. Coming up with the solutions yourself is an important part of the learning process for building the correct mental models. If you use LLMs for your assignments, you should report your usage.
Readings
All of these are optional.
CMU 15-462/662: a very nice (but intense) computer graphics course from Keenan Crane.
Schedule (tentative)
9/26/2025 (Fri): Introduction. (HW 1 out) [slides]
Why computer graphics? Course overview.
9/29/2025 (Mon): Vector graphics. [slides]
Rasterizing 2D graphics. Antialiasing. Transparency. Bezier curves.
10/1/2025 (Wed): Vector graphics. [slides]
10/3/2025 (Fri): Linear transformation. [slides]
Basic linear algebra. 2D linear transformation. Affine transformation.
10/6/2025 (Mon): Cameras. [slides]
Pinhole cameras. Field of view vs focal length. Perspective and orthographic projection.
10/8/2025 (Wed): Rasterization. [slides]
Triangle meshes. Depth interpolation. Z buffer. Perspective-corrected interpolation. Frustrum culling. Occlusion culling.
10/10/2025 (Fri): Ray tracing vs rasterization. [slides]
Z culling vs acceleration structures.
10/13/2025 (Mon): 3D transformation. (HW1 due, HW2 out) [slides] [recording]
Homogeneous coordinates. Scene graphs.
INSTRUCTOR OUT OF TOWN, WILL USE RECORDING
10/15/2025 (Wed): 3D rotation. [slides] [recording]
Euler angles. Axis-angle representation. Quaternion/Rotors.
INSTRUCTOR OUT OF TOWN, WILL USE RECORDING
10/17/2025 (Fri): Programmable graphics pipelines. [slides] [recording]
GPU architecture. Fixed-function pipeline. Vertex shaders. Fragment shaders.
INSTRUCTOR OUT OF TOWN, WILL USE RECORDING
10/20/2025 (Mon): Textures. [slides]
Image textures. Procedural textures. UV mapping. Mipmapping.
10/22/2025 (Wed): Lighting. [slides]
Ambient/diffuse/specular lighting. Shading normals. Gouraud/Phong/Deferred.
10/24/2025 (Fri): Materials. [slides]
Measured BRDFs. Blinn-Phong. Microfacet BRDFs.
10/27/2025 (Mon): Colors. [slides]
Color spaces. Gamma.
10/29/2025 (Wed): Global illumination. (HW2 due, HW3 out) [slides]
Path tracing. Radiosity.
10/31/2025 (Fri): Shadow mapping and shadow volume. [slides]
11/3/2025 (Mon): Antialiasing. [slides]
MSAA. FXAA. TAA.
11/5/2025 (Wed): Non-photorealistic rendering. [slides]
Toon shading. Contours. Line drawing.
11/7/2025 (Fri): Procedural modeling. [slides]
Fractal surfaces. L-systems. Grammars. SDFs.
11/10/2025 (Mon): Geometry processing. [slides]
Surface reconstruction. Mesh smoothing. Mesh simplification. Remeshing/Parameterization.
11/12/2025 (Wed): Curves and smooth surfaces. [slides]
Bezier cuves. B-splines. NURBS. Catmull-Clark and Loop subdivision.
11/14/2025 (Fri): Animation. (HW3 due, HW4 out) [slides]
Newtonian mechanics. ODEs. Numerical integration. Forward and inverse kinematics.
11/17/2025 (Mon): Particle systems and mass-spring systems. [slides]
Boids. Cloth simulation. Constrained dynamics.
11/19/2025 (Wed): Rigging, skinning, and blendshapes. [slides]
11/21/2025 (Fri): Graphics systems and domain-specific languages. [slides]
11/24/2025 (Mon): Neural networks. [slides]
11/26/2025 (Wed): Point-based graphics and Gaussian splatting. (HW4 due, final out) [slides]
11/28/2025 (Fri): Thanksgiving Holiday.
12/1/2025 (Mon): Transparency and volumes. [slides]
Alpha compositing. Volume rendering. Ray marching.
12/3/2025 (Wed): TBD
12/5/2025 (Fri): Sneak peak of other graphics classes, industry, and research. [slides]
CSE 168/169 and more.
12/12/2025 (Fri): Final due.
